In Rune Factory 4, as in all Rune Factory games, Cooked Dishes will raise your statistics in different ways. Certain dishes raise HP by a specific amount. Others raise your MAXIMUM HP temporarily. In the same way, there are certain dishes that will raise your RP by a specific amount and others tht temporarily raise your MAXIMUM RP.
Every Item that you craft, whether it is a Cooked Dish or a Weapon or a Medicine is given a specific Level in terms of the amount of Skill your Character needs in order to make it successfully. This skill is measured in RF4 by your maximum RP. If you lack the mimimum amount of skill needed or if you lack the Ingredients required to make the Item, it will be 'grayed out' when you access the crafting Menu.
If you have all the required Ingredients but lack sufficient skill, you can raise your RP temporarily by eating a Fish Dish made in the Frying Pan.
Here is a specific example from Freya's game.
She was at Level 64 in her Cooking Skill with a maximum RP of 1350. Bado's favourite dish is Tempura Bowl. It is Level 70 with a requirement of a maximum RP of 1400. Although she had all the Ingredients needed to make the Dish, she would not have been able to cook it successfully with a maximum RP of 1350. She needed to raise her maximum RP temporarily by 50 points in order to cook it.
She went to the Frying Pan Menu and found that Salted Char had the following effects:
HP +2200 RP max +50, INT +22.
By making and consuming Salted Char, she temporarily was able to raise her maximum RP to 1405 which placed the Tempura Bowl recipe within her range of expertise!
Now, there may be an added positive benefit to this strategy as there was in Freya's case. The more difficult the recipe, the more skill you gain by completing it. By making the Level 70 Tempura Bowl, Freya boosted her cooking skills to the next level. She therefore raised her maximum RP permanently, although not by 50 points.
Making a dish that requires a large amount of RP will deplete your Character's RP considerably. You may discover that you need to eat another Dish if you wish to craft more than one Item. Be warned, however, that when you eat another Dish, the effects of that dish will supercede the effects of the Dish you consumed first. Note, however, that the higher your Skill Level in the craft, the less RP you will need to make it. The Tempura Bowl that required a maximum of 1400 RP to make at Level 64 required only 700 RP to make at Level 66. In other words, by temporarily boosting her maximum RP in order to make two very difficult dishes in the form of Tempura Bowl and Relax Tea, Freya boosted her skill Level to a point where, at Level 66, she legitimately could make both without needing a temporary max RP elevation.
